Things I Learned Not to Do When You Sell a Business
This is a talk I gave to the Vancouver Chapter of the Entrepreneurs Organization (EO) on February 19, 2009.
Highlights of Part 3:
- I learn about how nasty take over battles can get.
- I was a rookie and ended up playing defense all the way through.
- The night before the big board meeting to determine our fate, my second daughter is born.
- Luckily, the board voted my way – by a single vote. Another important lesson for me.
- Just as I start to feel confident, our lawyer says “Extraordinary Shareholders Meeting” and “super majority”.
- I’m about to learn another important lesson…
- It turns out our fate hangs on a question about our company Articles – a document that I’d never read.
- I promise myself that I will never again neglect to repair the ‘structural defects’ early.
- We finally get the sale done, but I regret we ‘rode it over the top’.
- It takes me another ten years to understand all the things we did wrong.
- The truth is… we were lucky. To this day, I wish we’d had a good exit strategy and checked the alignment.
- In part 4 I talk about how an exit works when everything is done the right way.
Part 4 of How Not to Sell a Business is online here.
Many of the lessons I’ve learned are described in my new book on exit strategies for entrepreneurs and angel investors – www.Early-Exits.com.
